The War Museum

This past weekend the group and I were taken on a tour of several historically important places in Vietnam. The first one being the War Remnants Museum which focuses on the Vietnamese point of view of the Vietnam War. This museum offers up some “heavy” stuff to the visitor, especially those coming from the U.S. The collection of sobering photographs and weapons takes your breath away, and to be quite frank…makes you feel somewhat uncomfortable. Here you are standing in a room filled with horrendous photographs and commentary depicting the U.S. as this brutally aggressive country and hearing the whispers of other visitors talk about the U.S. not so nicely. You feel like you stand out…like there is this big arrow pointing to you that says “Yes I’m American”. The absolutely hardest hitting photograph on display is that of an American GI holding up the remaining parts of the body of a Viet Cong soldier of whom has been blown away. He is literally holding up the skin and head of the dead Viet Cong soldier. I was not prepared for that photo. The museum presents a graphic account of the conflict from the nation’s perspective. And I stress that…it’s solely their perspective. The museum was completely one sided and somewhat propagandist. Although some photos moved me, the museum as a whole was not as upsetting as I anticipated it to be. Maybe it was because America was portrayed in a negative light…maybe I was expecting more…or maybe I just kind of knew that war is war and awful things are to be expected. The main thing I got from the museum is that war, no matter where it happens and to whom, is always horribly brutal and many of its victims are civilians. My tour guide made an amazing point which helped me to appreciate and understand the modern focus of this changing nation. He said the Vietnamese do not focus on the past, the war has been over for a long time and the people today are thinking for the future. They do not dwell about the bad that happened rather they use their experiences to make their life better.